Believe Right!

I used to think that good works aimed at pleasing God and my efforts at keeping myself from sin were prerequisites to maintaining my salvation in Christ Jesus.  Even as a believer enjoying God's unmerited favour, I would recall Philippians 2:12 -   Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;”    and think that I still had to do good works to be justified. And then I would get really confused when I remember that Paul said in Romans 3:20 that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God -  Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. How confusing this was for me! But thank God for grace to take everything to Him in prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thank God that He hears us always! Verse 13 of Philippians 2 tells me that my doing our Heavenly Father’s pleasure is

Many of us Christians try to ‘get right with God’ by determining to stop sinning. We do our best to abide by the Ten Commandments. We fast to receive ‘more power to defeat the devil’ and to show God how serious we are about serving Him. We pay our tithes so that the devourer will not come near us. We are taught that if we do these things, God would have mercy on us, answer our prayers, deliver us from generational curses (another story for another day!) and maybe even lighten the load of punishment attached to our sins. We are told that God will not use us unless we bring ourselves up to a standard of holiness. How wrong it is to believe such doctrine! Romans 3:20 says: “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Believers in Christ, our good works, no matter how many, can never justify us before God. There are no terms and conditions attached to the blessings of God in the lives of believers. Romans 5:20 sa